David Cairns - Berlioz: Servitude and Greatness, 1832–1869

David Cairns was chief music critic of the Sunday Times from 1983 to 1992, having earlier been music critic and arts editor of the Spectator and a writer on the Evening Standard, Financial Times and New Statesman. He has been Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of California at Davis, a visiting scholar at the Getty Center and a visiting fellow of Merton College, Oxford. In 2013, in recognition of his services to French music, he was made Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

Servitude and Greatness 18321869

If it is possible to have an unflawed human endeavour, then this is it. This may be a book that satisfies the scholar but in every sense of the word it is a special work; it is a book which will also seduce the general reader Nigella Lawson, Samuel Johnson Prize judge

One of the masterpieces of modern biography as broad in its perspectives on nineteenth-century culture as it is deep in its understanding of one of Romanticisms most dogged and lovable individualists [it has] a richness and wholeness which renders Berlioz more vividly and intimately real than ever before Rupert Christiansen, Daily Telegraph

David Cairns wins this years Whitbread Biography Award for his masterly evocation of the inner man as well as the outer world in which he lived and worked. The judges felt that his biography is a work of art in itself which will still be enjoyed and admired for centuries to come Whitbread judges on David Cairnss Berlioz: Servitude and Greatness

He is able to assess his achievements as conductor, entrepreneur, journalist, and of course composer, with long and trenchant essays on the great works Cairns has never penetrated to the essence of these masterpieces so deeply as he does here, in the context of a life in which the music was an essential integrated part Hugh Macdonald, The Times Literary Supplement

Immensely readable. The descriptions of time and place are atmospheric the treatment of the music is illuminating the judgements are admirably clear and admirably forthright the product of a lifetimes study, understanding and love Terry Barfoot, Classical Music

Berlioz himself described his life as an improbable novel. You may, as I did, break off to play a recording of the work under discussion (which is a tribute to the way it is discussed), but the sheer human interest of the tale has you plunging back in Francis Carlin, Opera Now

Monumental How fortunate Berlioz has been in his latest, perhaps definitive, biographer George Steiner, Observer

One of the most difficult, and possibly useless, activities is commenting on a perfect work of art. What words can add anything to Ravels Lenfant et les sortilges or Mozarts Le nozze di Figaro? It is in such a spirit that I salute David Cairnss biography of Hector Berlioz Robert Tear, Oldie

To Rosemary
and to Isaac, Joseph, Molly, Laura, Isobel,
Maisie and Oliver

. Harriet Smithson: lithograph by Francis, 1827 (Richard Macnutt Collection, Withyham)

. Liszt: daguerrotype, c. 1841, when he was 30

. Paganini: a) lithograph by Edwin Landseer, c. 183134 (Richard Macnutt Collection). b) drawing by an unknown artist (formerly Andr Meyer Collection),

. Lhomme orchestre: lithograph by Benjamin Roubaud, Caricature Provisoire, 1 November 1838 (Richard Macnutt Collection)

. Meyerbeer: photograph by Nadar, c. 1860.

. Habeneck: engraving by L. Massard, c. 1840 (Bibliothque Nationale de France, Dpartement des la Musique).

. Jules Janin: photograph by Nadar, c. 1856 (Bibliothque Nationale de France, Dpartement des Estampes).

. Armand Bertin: engraving by G. Staal (Richard Macnutt Collection)

. Handbill of Berliozs concert of 16 December 1838 (Richard Macnutt Collection)

. Part of an autograph list of complimentary tickets for Berliozs Romeo and Juliet in November 1839 (Bibliothque Nationale de France, Dpartement de la Musique)

. Marie Recio: photograph, undated (Muse Berlioz, La Cte St Andr)

. The Rhine: The Lorelei Rock, c. 1817, pencil and watercolour, by J. M. W. Turner (Leeds City Art Gallery)

. Schloss Stolzenfels, near Coblenz, 1850, engraving by M. Kolb after a painting by Karl Schweich (Bibliothque Nationale de France, Dpartement des Estampes)

. Une Matine chez Liszt: lithograph, 1846, by Josef Kriehuber.

. Berlioz: lithograph, 1845, by August Prinzhofer

. Prague: engraving, after a painting by H. Bibby.

. Weimar, the castle: aquatint by F. Franke (detail).

. Princess Carolyne Sayn-Wittgenstein: drawing, undated, by Hebert

. Berlioz: engraving by Dumont after a drawing by Gustave Dor, Journal pour rire, 27 June 1850

. Llnstitut de France, Paris: lithograph by an unknown artist, c. 1860 (Bibliothque Nationale de France, Dpartement des Estampes).

. The Crystal Palace, roller-printed cotton, c.1851 (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)

. Photographs of Berliozs sister Adle Suat, c. 1840s.

. Berliozs uncle Flix Marmion, c. 1860s.

. Monique Nety, the familys housekeeper, c. 1850s (all Muse Berlioz)

. Berlioz: caricature by a Ctois, 1845 (Muse Berlioz)

. Pauline Viardot as Orphe: 1860, by D. Philippe (Bibliothque Nationale de France, Dpartement des Estampes)

. Wagner: photograph, 1860, by Pierre Petit

. Berlioz: photograph, 1857, by Nadar

. A page of the autograph full score of The Trojans, Act 3: part of the Dido-Anna duet (Bibliothque Nationale de France, Dpartement de la Musique)

. Contemporary caricatures of The Trojans by Cham.

. Contemporary caricatures of The Trojans by Cham.

. Contemporary caricatures of The Trojans by Cham.

. Grvin (d), respectively in the Charivari and the Journal Amusant

. The Trojans at Carthage at the Thtre-Lyrique: engraving, 1863, of the final act, La mort de Didon, published in the Monde Illustr (Richard Macnutt Collection).

. Louis Berlioz, the composers son: photograph, c. late 1850s (Muse Berlioz)

. Estelle Fornier: photograph, 1864 (Muse Berlioz)

. Berlioz: photograph, 18678, St Petersburg (Franois Lesure Collection)

. Berlioz: death mask, 1869, by Stanislaus Lami (private collection)

Thanks are due to the following for permission to reproduce the above-named illustrations: Richard Macnutt ().

Harriet Smithsons presence in the Conservatoire Hall on the afternoon of 9 December 1832 set the seal on one of the high dates of the Romantic calendar. Few can have missed the symbolism. Berlioz had not exactly kept his infatuation with